Thermo-reversible dry adhesives are made of at least one layer of an elastomeric dry-adhesive and at least one layer of a shape memory polymer (SMPs). SMPs represent responsive polymers that can fix to deformed temporary shapes and recover to their permanent (original) shapes only upon external stimuli such as heating. By heating and imposing a load during subsequent cooling to transform the dry adhesive to a temporary shape, adhesive strength may be increased. By subsequently heating the dry adhesive in the absence of load, therein transforming the dry adhesive back to its permanent shape, adhesive strength may be decreased. These dry adhesives may thus be used to reversibly couple together substrate materials.